... The National Review Online reports that Texas GOP governor Rick Perry appears to be getting serious about running for president because apparently he is "brushing up on foreign policy." And who is helping Perry with the brushing? None other than Doug Feith, whom Gen. Tommy Franks famously referred to as the "stupidest guy on the face of the earth." ... [my em]
A lawmaker referred James Murdoch to police Friday over claims of misleading parliament on the phone-hacking scandal as Prime Minister David Cameron said the media boss had "questions to answer".
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During a tense appearance with his father before parliament's media committee on Tuesday, James Murdoch, denied all knowledge of an email suggesting the problem went beyond one rogue reporter before authorising a payout to a victim.
But Colin Myler, the former editor of the News of the World, and Tom Crone, former legal manager of the News International news group, broke ranks on Thursday to say James Murdoch's recollection of events in 2008 was a "mistake".
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At least 84 people died when a gunman opened fire at an island youth camp in Norway, hours after a deadly bombing in the capital, Oslo, police say.
Police have charged a 32-year-old Norwegian man over both attacks.
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"We have no more information than... what has been found on [his] own websites, which is that it goes towards the right and that it is, so to speak, Christian fundamentalist."
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Emmylou Harris performs "Red Dirt Girl" live at Farm Aid 2005 at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, Illinois on September 18, 2005. Get this concert on DVD at: http://FarmAid.org/2005DVD
"My weapon was my language," World War II Marine veteran Joe Morris Sr. told a crowd of nearly 200 in a San Bernardino park on Veterans Day in 2004. "We saved a lot of lives."
Morris, one of the Navajo code talkers whose use of their native language in transmitting messages successfully thwarted Japanese code breakers in the Pacific during World War II, died Sunday at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center in Loma Linda of complications of a stroke, said his daughter, Colleen Anderson. He was 85.
In a 2003 interview with the Navajo Times, Morris said they were told "if you get captured by the Japanese don't you ever tell them what you learned here."
If captured, Morris said, their instructions were simple: "Just die for your country."
Morris was born April 19, 1926. As the eldest of four children, he tended his parents' sheep and horses on the Navajo reservation, which he once described as a place where there was "no electricity, no running water, no school."
At age 12, he was sent to a government boarding school 70 miles away, where he learned English. Morris returned to the reservation after the school was closed during the war and turned into an internment camp for Japanese Americans.
He was barely 17 in 1943 when he went to the local draft board and said he was 18 in order to obtain a draft registration card, which was required to be hired for a job.
He had been working in an Arizona ore mine a few months when he was drafted. He credited a Navajo medicine man with keeping him safe during the war.
"He prayed a day and a half for me," Morris recalled in a 1998 interview with the Modesto Bee. "He said, 'Grandson, you will be safe, and you will come back so you can tell me all that happened.' "
AUSTIN, TX—Describing Texas Gov. Rick Perry as grossly unqualified for the position, God, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, urged Perry not to run for president of the United States Wednesday. “I prayed last night and asked the Lord to support my candidacy, and He said no,” Perry told reporters outside the Texas Capitol, explaining that God had cited the governor’s rejection of federal stimulus funds to expand state jobless benefits, his irresponsible speculation about Texas seceding from the union, and his overall lack of concrete solutions to nation’s problems as reasons why He could not endorse a Perry presidential bid. “I believe God made some valid points about my lack of credentials, and He’s absolutely right. My extreme beliefs when it comes to social issues and states’ rights are not only disturbingly narrow-minded, but would also make me a horrible president.” When reached for comment, God said He would not be present at Perry’s much-talked-about Christian day of prayer on Aug. 6, calling the governor’s use of his public office to endorse a religion both “irresponsible” and a violation of the Constitution.
The GOP to the Working Class is Like Colonel Sanders Promising a Good Life to Chickens
It used to be that a sworn oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution was the only promise required to become president. But that no longer seems to be enough for a growing number of Republican interest groups, who are demanding that presidential candidates sign pledges shackling them to the corners of conservative ideology. Many candidates are going along, and each pledge they sign undermines the basic principle of democratic government built on compromise and negotiation.
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But iron-clad promises were just what the most rigid Republican ideologues wanted. They had seen too many presidents — specifically Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush — bend when confronted by a complex national reality. Both those presidents agreed to new taxes and some Republicans said they did not fight hard enough to outlaw abortion or cut spending to the point where government was unrecognizable. In other words, they compromised a bit, to keep divided government from destroying itself. Washington, the ideologues decided, corrupted true conservatives into moderates.
More was needed to keep them in line, which gave birth to the signed pledge — no more enforceable than a spoken promise, but a politician’s actual signature was seen as more binding. [...]
That pledge is the single biggest reason the federal government is now on the edge of default.
Only one candidate, Jon Huntsman Jr., has refused to sign any pledge, saying he owes allegiance to his flag and his wife. It is refreshing in a field of candidates who have forgotten the true source of political power in America.
Horde of 'gay barbarians' glitter Bachmann clinic
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[Columnist Dan] Savage says his site hasn't been updated for years, yet it remains entrenched in the Google rankings. Not even Santorum's ascent as a Fox News contributor or his early campaign swings through the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire have managed to bury it. With Google results like this, what's an aspiring presidential candidate to do?
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It’s pretty surprising that the Republicans aren’t doing well raising funds, but even moreso that they did a better job under Michael Steele. Steele was a gaffetastic buffoon, but apparently knew more about raising cash – the real job of a party chairman – than Priebus does.
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"The sad thing is America no longer has a two-party system," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said at a press conference Wednesday. "One of our two parties has morphed into kind of a cult driven by a singular fixation and obsession: preserving tax breaks for the wealthy at all costs."
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"Once again the radical right is more worried about protecting their next election than protecting the greatest generation or the next generation," Mikulski said at a press conference. "What a sham, what a scam. I'd be tempted to blow it off if it weren't so cruel, stupid and dangerous."
Alabama still collecting tax for Confederate vets
Rep. Allen West (R-FL) appears to have some fairly strong opinions about what it takes to act like a lady, and he expressed them in an email to his colleague, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) yesterday. “You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up,” he wrote to her. “You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!” Given the restrictiveness of Mr. West’s vision of ladylike conduct, I thought it was important to provide him with a primer on things ladies are allowed to do.
It’s not surprising that West made the mistake of assuming that being a lady means a pliant, adorable cream puff. Lots of folks do. But Debbie Wasserman Schultz is heir to the best part of the lady tradition: the tough as nails one.
Rush Limbaugh claims there is no heat wave, just a government conspiracy to make us think that it is hot.
According to Limbaugh, the heat wave is all part of giant government conspiracy to make people think that it is hotter than what it is in order to get them to believe that climate change is real. Limbaugh thinks this kind of heat wave happens every year, but it doesn’t. According to the National Weather Service 1,000 heat records have been broken across the United States in the past month.
There is no vast government conspiracy to make the heat wave seem hotter. This is a real and unprecedented weather event. Since Rush Limbaugh’s political ideology will not allow him to acknowledge that there might be something to this whole climate change thing, he has to explain it away with a silly conspiracy theory.
By the end of the week Rush Limbaugh will be blaming Obama and his top secret weather machine for the heat, because there is no home for reality in the right wing mind.
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It should be clear to everyone, by now, that if the choice was between having their mothers drown or having President Obama rescue them, Republicans would arrange for the funerals.
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I am a neurologist at an academic medical center quite familiar with migraines. I think in general, most people would accept that a propensity to migraine should not disqualify one from being President. Readers of your site will all appreciate Rep. Bachmann has far more legitimate reasons to disqualify her.
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On Monday Venetian Casino Resort, LLC. filed suit against Tea Party Nation Corporation of Franklin, TN for $642,144 in unpaid hotel bills and interest. According to a contract attached to the suit, Tea Party Nation agreed to pay the resort $579,148 in the event of a cancellation. The Palazzo alleges the group still owes $554,148, plus [an] 18 percent interest charge of $87,996. [my bolds]
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The Atlantis has landed at the Kennedy Space Center, 42 years to the day after the Eagle module of the Apollo 11 mission touched down on the surface of the moon.
Returning to Earth’s terra firma just before dawn in Florida, Atlantis’ final mission was also the 135th and the last of the space shuttle program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
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10) Rupert Murdoch doesn't like pie.
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5) Both Murdochs were completely ignorant of the fact that their media outlets hacked into cell phones over and over and (repeat 4,800 times)...
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3) Pieman who'd gotten the jump on Murdoch was the only person in the UK who hasn't had his cell phone hacked.
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Here in the US we call Rupert's strategy the "Ken Lay" defense, which amounts to "I didn't know nothin' about anythin'" which has always brought to mind a big question for me: if they didn't know anything about what was going on in their companies, why in the hell were they paid so much money? It should, by all rights, inspire some sort of re-evaluation of CEO pay if nothing else.
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As a young journalist during World War I, Keith Murdoch became famous when he visited the Gallipoli campaign and broke censorship rules barring any criticism of the conduct of war or tally of casualty figures. He wrote home to the Australian prime minister, a family friend, and he sneaked off to London to blow the whistle there — in a jingoistic, exaggerated way his son would appreciate — about the incompetence of the British command in charge of the decimation in Turkey, where 120,000 soldiers died, including 8,500 Australian infantry and light horsemen.
Old posters for the brilliant 1981 movie “Gallipoli” give Rupert Murdoch a producing credit. He financed half the movie to show the world why his father had been right.
Rupert wanted to avenge his father with the British establishment, and what sweeter way to do it than to take over the British press, including its most prestigious broadsheet, The Times of London, and help decide who runs Britain.
His most revealing moment was when he volunteered his admiration of Singapore, calling it the most “open and clear society in the world.” Its leaders are so lavishly paid, he said, that “there’s no temptation, and it is the cleanest society you’d find anywhere.”
It was instructive that Murdoch chose to praise a polished, deeply authoritarian police state. Maybe that’s how corporations would live if they didn’t have to believe in people.
New York City is holding a lottery to award couples the right to marry on Sunday, the first day same-sex couples can be wed under a new law.
The lottery will select 764 couples, and opposite sex couples are eligible.
"The number of couples who want to marry on Sunday is more than the City Clerk's offices could possibly handle," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
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NEW YORK (WABC) -- Amy Eisinger works for weddingchannel.com, which has featured same-sex commitment ceremonies. Come next week, it will highlight legal weddings in New York as well.
Same-sex weddings are great for her business, but more specifically for venues, caterers, florists, dress and suit makers, bands, DJs, photographers, registry companies and even the travel industry. Those in the business are gearing up for the gay wedding community to bring approximately $300 Million in spending over the next two years.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Doctors in New Jersey will be allowed to prescribe medical marijuana after Governor Chris Christie said on Tuesday he will let new legislation originally signed by his predecessor be implemented.
New Jersey will join 15 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing marijuana for medical use, although the New Jersey legislation is more restrictive than elsewhere.
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The qualities of the pledge to Americans for Taxual Healing are many. First of all, there's the sweet, sweet release that one can get when one feels one's foot connect with the soft sack between Grover Norquist's legs. There's the hilarious slow motion look of horror on Norquist's face as he thinks, "Not again" and "Oh, my balls." Then there's the extra skip in one's step as one heads onto the floor to vote in whatever way one wants.
And then ATH can hold each signer to the pledge. If we hear that Grover Norquist was able to freely come within, say, three feet of a Congress member's foot and walked away with his balls un-kicked, well, we'll run a primary candidate against that Congress member, someone willing to follow through with an assault on Norquist's nuts. Our goal is to make Norquist's testicles feel a sharp pain whenever he gets near the Capitol and thus drive him away.
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While answering questions before Parliament Tuesday, a man appeared to try to throw a pie in the face of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.
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It all began a few months ago when my grandson gave me a pair of crystals he had grown from a kit Jesus left under the Christmas tree. I quickly fashioned the crystals into a crude Urim and Thummim and began translating Facsimile #2 using the same method Joseph Smith employed--that is, as Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles describes it: “Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light..."
I began by translating the Reformed Egyptian characters found on the upper outer edge, and was surprised to find that my translation differs from the Prophet Joseph's. I don't know why that is. Perhaps, God waited to reveal a second meaning until a more proper time. The context within my translation would support that.
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What about the other candidates?
Herman Cain: Well, this is Mormon scripture. He's not...uh..celestially acceptable.
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Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbusiness reporter who was the first named journalist to allege that Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead.
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He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs, and had been in rehab. "But that's irrelevant," he said. "There's more to come. This is not going to go away."
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We'll also get to see whether or nor Eric Holder really has any stones.
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Rick Perry like to pretend like Texas is some sort of economic utopia where they don't pass debts on to future generations and do just fine on their own without any interference from the gretbigoh fedrul gubmint.
It plays well on the stump as he addresses the true believers who will never question him or believe the evidence that proves otherwise, but in reality, it's a shameless lie.
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Now that the White House has decided not to nominate Elizabeth Warren to run the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she's taking her fight to protect the new agency directly to Republicans. And she says the time has come either for President Obama to recess appoint his designated director, or to engage in a loud, public fight with the GOP senators who have vowed to block the confirmation of any nominee, regardless of ideology or affiliation.
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There aren’t many positive aspects to the looming possibility of a U.S. debt default. But there has been, I have to admit, an element of comic relief — of the black-humor variety — in the spectacle of so many people who have been in denial suddenly waking up and smelling the crazy.
A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being. “Has the G.O.P. gone insane?” they ask.
Why, yes, it has. But this isn’t something that just happened, it’s the culmination of a process that has been going on for decades. Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display either hasn’t been paying attention, or has been deliberately turning a blind eye.
And may I say to those suddenly agonizing over the mental health of one of our two major parties: People like you bear some responsibility for that party’s current state.
Put it this way: If a Republican president had managed to extract the kind of concessions on Medicare and Social Security that Mr. Obama is offering, it would have been considered a conservative triumph. But when those concessions come attached to minor increases in revenue, and more important, when they come from a Democratic president, the proposals become unacceptable plans to tax the life out of the U.S. economy.
Beyond that, voodoo economics has taken over the G.O.P.
The Republican curse is like a method of Roman torture whereby a rotting corpse is strapped to a healthy person’s body until the decomposing excrement and bacteria infects the living tissue and the healthy individual succumbs to a slow, torturous death. The dead body is the GOP and the living human – carrying around the weight of the decaying body while at the same time attempting to survive and provide necessities to sustain that existence – is the nation.
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The Nazis Party, with its nasty little prejudices and cultic myths, was Germany’s dead corpse strapped to its back. Republicans are ours.
The old lady at the pharmacy counter obviously wore an adult diaper. That tell-tale sharp urine scent half-masked by sweet-smelling chemicals emanated from her, and the Rude Pundit stood right behind her yesterday, waiting to pick up the pills that prevent him from going on a five-state killing spree. She was getting three prescriptions. The total was $6.00. This puzzled the old lady. She had never paid anything before, and even this seemingly small amount was obviously causing her consternation. The cashier checked with the pharmacist, who said that there had been a minor change to her plan, and now she had to pay a little for the scrips, a buck-fifty, three bucks. She apologized and put aside the couple of other things she was going to purchase to pay for the medicine.
Our savage economic inequality in this country is coming to a head. We talk about "spending cuts," as if what we're not really talking about is "making the poor pay more for stuff." We talk as if the services that are cut will be picked up by the aching states and cities. And we talk about nonsense like "shared sacrifice," as if that's the rational position in any of this. When the wealthy actually sacrifice something, we can talk about sharing.
At this point, any Americans earning above, say, to be generous, $500,000 a year who don't believe that they should be paying more in taxes are just goddamned greedy assholes who deserve a real Marxist revolution to take it all away. They have benefited from a country that generously gave them decades of low taxes in the hopes that they would help make this a better place. They fucked it up, and it's time to give back. If your parents supported you through college in order for you to get your MBA and get rich, then you take care of them if they go through hard times. You don't say, "Sorry, Mom, but how can I create jobs if I have to help you avoid losing your house?" Unless you do, in which case, you are a dick and deserve to be put up against the wall in the aforementioned revolution.
Back at the pharmacy, the old woman walked away from the counter, putting back the cheap socks and orange juice she was going to buy, leaving with her prescriptions, her sacrifice far from shared.
DOJ Won't Prosecute Those Responsible for Financial Meltdown, Torture
May attempt second trial of Roger Clemens.
UN WORKING GROUP TO MERCENARIES: YOU NEED TO BE REGULATED
Mercenaries to UN: by you and what army?
Murdoch Not Involved in Hacking Scandal, Which Never Happened
According to Fox News.
Cuba Says 16% Online
Mainly on Craigslist seeking parts for '58 Chevys.
British police on Sunday reportedly arrested a former top aide to Rupert Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks, over the hacking scandal that has led to calls for the break-up of the media mogul's empire in the country.
First they closed the 405,
and I didn't speak out because I didn't drive the 405.
Then they closed the Golden State,
and I didn't speak out because I didn't drive the Golden State.
Then they closed the 101,
and I didn't speak out because I didn't drive the 101.
Then they closed Fairfax and there was no one left to speak out for me.
notdecraw 23 hours ago 97
After Hitler's suicide, the freeway was divided: East 405 (under Latino supervision) and West 405, (controlled by Peoples Republic of Santa Monica). Drivers soon took other routes. Thus began the Cold(water Canyon) War.
tashload 23 hours ago 79
Sarah Palin Movie Debuts to Empty Theater in Orange County
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"Why aren't you seeing Harry Potter?" an usher said to the reporter sitting alone in the audience
I wish I could say that I'm surprised about any of this, but I'm not. Warships take a lot of TLC to keep in good condition. A decade ago, the Navy went to a concept called "optimal manning", which was a bureaucratic way of saying "not enough sailors to keep the ships up." From what I've read, a Burke class DDG had a complement of 290, yet the Navy sent those ships to see with the the crew size of a Knox class FF (or a Perry class FFG). Those two frigate classes displaced 4,100 tons, but a Burke class DDG displace between 8,300 and 9,500 tons.*
The Burkes are much larger ships. Those who thought that the Navy could send them to sea with the crew size of a smaller ship and not eventually pay a price had to have been drinking the Ft. Fumble Kool-Aid. The practice of not sending enough sailors to ships to properly man the ships was a factor in the grounding of the USS Port Royal.
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Sadly, however, our God Culture isn't limited to just the political game, but also allows some of those clever cats, professional athletes, to get in on the action.
I must admit to finding it rather amusing - as in completely ridiculous - whenever an overpaid ballplayer hits a three-point shot or bashes a fastball over the center field wall, only to respond by pointing up to the Heavens as if it were Divinely ordained. Because we all know any Higher Power has nothing better to do - like ending conflict in the Sudan or curing cancer - than taking in some sport and using his/her powers to ensure Arsenal wins the FA Cup.
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Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, has resigned, the company has confirmed.
Her departure follows days of increasing pressure to step down as the phone hacking crisis grew.
In a statement, she said she felt a "deep responsibility for the people we have hurt".
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Man wins right to wear pasta strainer on head in driver’s license photo
This follows a pattern for most right-wingers, who do much of their posturing and politicking primarily in conservative media outlets. To wit:
We can only hope that Obama's supposed declaration of "I've reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this" is true. We can only hope that it's the start of some new path for him, some utter abandonment of the bipartisan snipe hunt he's been on. Perhaps it's too late. Perhaps he's too far into the woods to find his way home.
But stupid optimism is what makes us American. And it's that stupidity that made so many Americans elect this actually dangerous group of people. There is no Forrest Gump-wisdom in the dimwitted. There's only the horrible consequences of their actions.
The more we find out about the House Republican caucus, the more obvious it becomes that they're not just trying to maximize their leverage by pretending to be crazy. They're crazy.
... All kidding aside, I actually [find] Boehner the least odious of the bunch...but that's kind of like finding herpes the least odious STD ...
It may be known as the land of 10,000 lakes but there will be 39 fewer brands of beer on sale in the state soon. This is the result of Miller-Coors failure to renew their licenses to sell beer in the state prior to the Republican caused shutdown of the government. Some may dismiss those brands as small beer and peewater but it is still an unnecessary cruelty to deny a man his brand just to protect millionaires and corporations from a much deserved tax hike.
Just days after the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) insisted that there is no medical value to marijuana, the White House appeared to contradict the position, saying in a report that there may actually be "some" medical value to "individual components of the cannabis plant" after all.
Critics are likely to see the passage as offering a bit of wiggle room for major pharmesutical producers looking to grow marijuana to extract its psychoactive ingredient, THC, or other cannabinoid compounds that have been demonstrated to help abate symptoms of some chronic diseases, like wasting syndrome in AIDS patients or nausea in cancer patients.
In 2007, GW Pharmaceuticals announced that it partnered with Otsuka to bring "Sativex" -- or liquefied marijuana -- to the U.S. [...]
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has warned just as much, claiming that federal authorities may be looking to shift policy slightly, if only to legalize marijuana-based medicines for Big Pharma only, which could step in and potentially eradicate the medical marijuana market.
An ABC News poll found last year that eight in 10 Americans favor legalizing medical marijuana.
Mitch McConnell: We Must Rewrite The Constitution Because ‘Elections’ Haven’t ‘Worked’
It’s worth noting just what McConnell is asking the American people to choke down.
Don't have sex. Gays are evil. Repress your urges. Close your legs. Quit asking questions.
Jesus loves Coors Light and large-caliber handguns. Iraq is packed like a Bieber concert with squealing nuclear warheads aimed straight at the Utah public school system. The homosexual agenda is alive and very, very real, and it wants to indoctrinate your children, steal your semen and organize your underwear drawer far, far too perfectly. Also, God is judging you. Right. This. Second.
Lawrence explains how President Obama continues to outsmart, out-strategize and out-talk the Republicans, in the debt ceiling standoff. Plus, Howard Dean joins The Last Word with more analysis.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Welcome to Republican Cave
There's myriad ways to look at Mitch McConnell's Deal o' Last Resort that he proffered yesterday. All of them involve the phrase "Fuck it." There's "Fuck it. If Obama loves the debt ceiling so much, he can marry it." And there's "Fuck it. These crazy Tea Party motherfuckers aren't gonna be happy until we're all living in heavily-armed bomb shelters." And there's "Fuck it. I'm sick of negotiating." And on and on, all variations on "Just fuck it."
McConnell announced the plan after taking to the Senate floor to say, "Democrats suck monkey balls." He also said a bunch of nonsense about what he thinks "the American people" want without mentioning that one of the things we want, by a huge majority, is higher taxes on people making far more than most of us.
The Rude Pundit sees this as part and parcel of how McConnell and Boehner have governed. They take themselves out of the battle and merely stand on the sidelines, hurling Molotov cocktails while saying that their pathetic pyromania is leadership.
One other thing: because this doesn't just raise the debt ceiling $2.5 trillion in one fell swoop, it requires a certain amount of trust in the Republicans by the Obama administration. If they dick the President over, then we plunge once again into crisis. Those fuckers aren't worthy of that kind of trust. Why would you let the arsonists guard the gas stove?
Kody Brown is a proud polygamist, and a relatively famous one. Now Mr. Brown, his four wives and 16 children and stepchildren are going to court to keep from being punished for it.
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Human Rights Watch has called on Barack Obama, the current US president, to order a criminal investigation into alleged detainee abuse by his predecessor, George W Bush, and senior figures from his administration.
"There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, [former vice president Dick] Cheney, [former secretary of defence Donald] Rumsfeld, and [former CIA director George] Tenet for authorising torture and war crimes," Kenneth Roth, HRW's executive director, said.
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"The US is right to call for justice when serious international crimes are committed in places like Darfur, Libya, and Sri Lanka, but there should be no double standards," Roth said.
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A Manhattan judge has thrown out a lawsuit from a retired firefighter who sued to block construction on the proposed Park51 Islamic Center near Ground Zero, but the conservative group that represented him says it will appeal the decision.
The New York Times reported that Justice Paul G. Feinman of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled on Friday that retired firefighter Timothy Brown is "an individual with a strong interest in preservation of the building," but lacks legal standing to challenge construction of the Islamic Center.
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But somehow Rich Lowry is going to end up making these digital pages stick together.
(Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch may not garner as much attention for his financial savvy as he does for his journalistic escapades, which last week led to the shuttering of Britain's oldest tabloid. But that doesn't make his money management any less impressive.
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Over the past four years Murdoch's U.S.-based News Corp. has made money on income taxes. Having earned $10.4 billion in profits, News Corp. would have been expected to pay $3.6 billion at the 35 percent corporate tax rate. Instead, it actually collected $4.8 billion in income tax refunds, all or nearly all from the U.S. government.
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On his show Tuesday, he said that while working at Fox Sports he became sick and was advised by his doctor to slow down at work. When he requested to work five days instead of six, Fox Sports immediately pulled him off the air until he received a letter from his doctor guaranteeing he was well enough to work.
They then offered to either have Olbermann work a very busy schedule or receive a 60 percent pay cut.
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Rupert Murdoch's products in the United States have long been engaged in a one-sided war with the Obama administration. Now there's a justification for joining the fight, bringing all the power of the law to bear. It's a gift. Obama could crush Murdoch and make Bill O'Reilly have to beg CNN to let them blow Blitzer for quarters. The phone-hacking scandal is like God just handed the President a perfect, wet pussy and said, "No, it's okay. You can fuck it. Enjoy."
(Note: He won't fuck it.)
"Why waste time and expense intercepting real cell-phone messages ... when we can simply sell our own phony messages."
Senate conservatives blocked the Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans with Children Act on Tuesday, following an objection from Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK, left), who spoke out in opposition to the bill. The $3.4 billion bill, introduced by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), would have provided special benefits to homeless women veterans (as well as to homeless male veterans with dependent children).
Women returning from war have unique risk factors for homelessness, such as trauma from sexual assault while in the military and lower earning potential than men.
Blocking the bill is a puzzling move on the part of conservatives, for whom talking about things like Christian compassion, family values and supporting our troops is a cherished pastime. Must be the whole doing something thing that makes them squeamish.
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Ahmad Wali Karzai, a leading power broker in the country's south, was shot dead at his home in a blow to Nato's battle against the Taliban in the area.
He was shot twice by his long-time head of security Sardar Mohammed, who was himself killed almost immediately.
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
In a previous post, I wrote about how Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum signed a pledge that likely has many right wing extremists salivating, and that had some highly controversial, highly offensive language in it suggesting that black children were better off born into slavery.
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The anti-porn language was removed last week (file that under, “Mission Impossible”), and now THE FAMiLY LEADER (per Think Progress, the lowercase “i” is meant to represent individual submission) is scrubbing the “Slavery = Family Values” part, too.
“Can be misconstrued.” “Misconstruction.” Yes, that’s right… if you were one of those idiots who thought the LEADER sounded racist, thenhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif they’re awfully sorry you somehow twisted their words, “a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President” to mean something other than “Boy howdy, them slave kids were lucky ducks! They sure as heck had it good back in the day!”
Bachmann did not read pledge calling slavery a better arrangement for blacks
Santorum told CNN Sunday that he was "taken aback" by the pledge at first, but host Candy Crowley failed to ask him about the slavery claim.
The shallows I’m talking about are virtual cesspools of right-wing religious dogma that pollute the cultural and political landscape of the U.S., especially in the South (where I live) and the Midwest. The outrages being committed in the name of dogmatic religious myths are growing, as the faithful and their political cohorts in God’s Own Party continue their relentless assault on vulnerable people’s lives and our democratic traditions.
Anyway, if the term dogma upsets the dogmatic, that’s too damn bad. When dealing with fanatics, no good can come from phony respect, especially at the expense of accuracy. And the fanatics who are bent on theocratic domination will only view any respect from the left, feigned or otherwise, as a sign of weakness to exploit to their advantage in their long-term war against all forms of enlightenment.
So while I hate to do it, I must chastise my liberal and moderate friends, irrespective of their religious views, for being far too tolerant of the madness of the religious right. It is very late in the game, and the well-organized religious fanatics already have a lock on one of our major political parties. So, contra President Obama, it is way past time to abandon the suicidal notion that we can reason with them or work with them constructively. Instead, we must match their determination. How about we start by dropping any pretense that they are rational people or that anything they are saying is even worth talking about? How about recognizing that our overriding goal must be to do everything in our power to prevent them from expanding their power, before it’s too late? We can start by publicly rebuking them any time they express their crazy ideas and by exposing their anti-democratic agenda at every opportunity. We need to match their determination, go into attack mode on all fronts, and make our voice heard in the timid, bought-and-paid-for mainstream media before they completely own it.
So let’s stop acting like the current crop of democrats, stop treating brainwashed fanatics like they’re worth talking to. [...]
So in conclusion, religious fundamentalists talk and act like they expect some special privilege to be granted to their religious beliefs; but as soldiers in the cultural and political wars, they deserve no privilege to be protected from criticism. Everyone understands that democracy is meaningless unless it permits vigorous debate. But they have no commitment to Constitutional democracy, which is an obstacle to the domination they seek.
Finally, a closing quotation from Christopher Hitchens:
“Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.”
Amen.
Since Paul Ryan introduced his draconian "roadmap" for cleaning up the mess he and his cohorts caused on the backs of working Americans the Republican lie machine has been spinning in high gear. They have the tough propoganda sell of telling Americans that they should sacrifice anything the government does for them so the wealthy can horde more money. With their sophisticated network to do just that and many complicit Democrats they have set out to accomplish just that task. However as always in right-wing fantasy land the facts are against them.
As always again the true facts are out there. Why do you think the propoganda machine has to kick into high gear?? They know they have to convince Americans that those nasty liberals are just lying and that they should not expect social security, medicare, or anything else the government provides.
So as always with Republicans if you want to know the real truth just listen to what they say and believe the opposite. Their real problem is not that they truth about the Ryan plan has not come out it is that it has. As always the truth does not support them and they have to lie to try and make it what they want.
This time however it appears as if Americans are smarter than the Republicans thought.
U.S. Holds Back Aid to Pakistani Military
What are they going to do — sell their nukes?
GOP Spending Bill Slashes Budget of Consumer Product Safety Commission, Defunds Consumer Complaint Database
And calls for arrest and deportation of all undocumented consumers.
Murdoch Shuts Down News of the World in Light of Hacking Scandal
May have to sell majority ownership of British government.
Marijuana Dispensaries Outnumber Starbucks in Denver
“Mile High City” rebranded “High City.”
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Apparently a cleaning crew found the stun gun in a back pocket after the passengers and crew left the plane; the cleaners contacted the Port Authority police and TSA. Jet Blue confirmed the incident to My Fox NY and said it was cooperating.
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